“Color is joy. One does not think joy. One is carried by it.” — Ernst Haas
Vivid and expressive, color has transformed photography, shaping how we perceive the world and how the world sees itself. In celebration of those who redefined its possibilities, we’ve curated a list of twenty photographers, past and present, whose masterful use of color has expanded photography’s boundaries and changed the way we experience images.
1. Franco Fontana
Italian photographer Franco Fontana (b. 1933) was among the first to treat color as pure abstraction. Beginning in the 1960s, he reduced landscapes to minimalist compositions of saturated fields and geometric form, transforming the natural world into something closer to painting than photography. His bold hues and refined sense of structure made him a pioneer of color minimalism, influencing both fine art and commercial photography. Fontana’s work demonstrated that color itself, stripped of narrative, could carry emotional and formal power, establishing him as a foundational figure in the evolution of photographic language.
– Read our profile on Franco here.
2. Saul Leiter
Regarded as one of the most important practitioners of the post-war period, Saul Leiter (1923–2013) was an early pioneer of color photography, best known for the captivating chromatic images he captured on the streets around his Manhattan home during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Leiter’s creative journey began with painting, a lifelong passion that profoundly shaped his photographic vision; his painter’s eye for tone, composition, and restraint underpinned his subtle, poetic use of color. Today, his work endures as a cornerstone of color photography, its quiet lyricism continuing to influence generations of image-makers.
– Read our profile on Saul here.
3. Helen Levitt
Best known for her poetic depictions of New York street life, Helen Levitt (1913–2009) was also one of the earliest photographers to explore the artistic possibilities of color. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she began using Kodachrome film to document the city’s murals, children, and daily rhythms, creating vibrant portraits of urban life that contrasted with the prevailing monochrome style of the time.
Levitt’s intuitive eye and sensitivity to gesture gave her color work a quiet lyricism, transforming ordinary moments into visual poetry. Though much of it remained unseen for decades, her rediscovered color photographs reveal her as a true pioneer, one who foresaw the expressive potential of color within documentary practice.
– Read our profile on Helen here.
4. Fred Herzog
German-born, Vancouver-based photographer Fred Herzog (1930–2019) was a pioneer of color street photography long before the medium gained artistic acceptance. Beginning in the 1950s, he documented the streets, signage, and working-class neighborhoods of Vancouver using Kodachrome film, producing images rich in tone and authenticity.
Herzog’s photographs captured a city in transition, its neon lights, storefronts, and people rendered with striking vibrancy and warmth. Though under-recognized during his lifetime, his rediscovery in the 2000s revealed a body of work that anticipated the color movements of the 1970s, earning him his rightful place among the medium’s great innovators.
5. Raghubir Singh
Indian photographer Raghubir Singh (1942–1999) was one of the first to champion color as the natural language of Indian life. Working from the late 1960s onwards, he captured the country’s streets, temples, and landscapes with a masterful command of hue, light, and rhythm. Rejecting the dominance of Western black-and-white documentary, Singh argued that “color is the soul of India.” His layered, dynamic compositions combined the sensibility of miniature painting with the immediacy of modern life. Through his vibrant, deeply rooted vision, Singh not only redefined Indian photography but also expanded the global understanding of color’s expressive power.
6. Rinko Kawauchi
Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi (b. 1972) is celebrated for her ethereal, poetic approach to color. Emerging in the early 2000s with works such as Illuminance and Aila, she transformed the everyday into something quietly transcendent.
Drawing on her background in design and the aesthetics of Japanese minimalism, Kawauchi uses soft, natural light and pastel tones to reveal the beauty within fleeting, ordinary moments. Sunlight through curtains. Soap bubbles. A bird mid-flight. Her delicate palette and meditative compositions established a new visual language in contemporary photography, one defined by intimacy, stillness, and wonder.
7. Harry Gruyaert
Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert (b. 1941), a longtime member of Magnum Photos, is celebrated for his bold, cinematic approach to color. Emerging in the 1970s, when black-and-white still dominated documentary photography, he used color not as ornament but as structure, a means of shaping emotion, tension, and rhythm within the frame.
Influenced by the saturated hues of European cinema, Gruyaert’s work transformed the everyday into something luminous and strange. His photographs, often made in Morocco, India, and his native Belgium, combine deep reds, blues, and shadows to convey atmosphere rather than narrative. Through his intuitive use of light and hue, Gruyaert helped redefine the expressive potential of color within the tradition of street and documentary photography.
8. Viviane Sassen
Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen (b. 1972) has become one of the defining colorists of contemporary photography. Her vivid, sculptural compositions blend elements of abstraction, surrealism, and fashion, transforming the human body into a play of geometry and shadow. Drawing inspiration from her early years in Africa, Sassen’s work, seen in series such as Flamboya and Parasomnia, uses bold contrasts and saturated hues to explore ideas of identity, beauty, and the gaze. Her distinctive approach, merging fine art and editorial aesthetics, has redefined how color operates within contemporary visual culture, turning it into both subject and symbol.
9. William Eggleston
Widely regarded as the father of color photography, William Eggleston (b. 1939) revolutionized the medium in the 1970s by asserting that everything was worthy of being photographed. His 1976 exhibition at MoMA (the museum’s first devoted entirely to color) marked a turning point, legitimizing color photography as fine art. Rejecting both the romanticism of traditional landscape and the starkness of black-and-white documentary, Eggleston turned his lens toward the mundane details of his surroundings in the American South, his mastery of color, light, and composition, transforming the seemingly ordinary into something quietly extraordinary, forever changing the visual language of photography.
10. Steve McCurry
Perhaps the most influential living figure in contemporary photography, Steve McCurry (b. 1950) has defined the visual language of modern photojournalism. Rising to prominence with his 1984 National Geographic cover, Afghan Girl, McCurry’s work merges reportage and artistry through rich, luminous tones that heighten emotion and atmosphere. His images — spanning conflict zones, spiritual rituals, and moments of quiet resilience — evoke both intimacy and universality. Though sometimes criticized for romanticism, his command of color as a storytelling device remains unparalleled, demonstrating how color can transcend documentation, transforming the photojournalistic image into something both immediate and timeless.
– Read our profile on Steve here.
11. Ernst Haas
Austrian-born Ernst Haas (1921–1986) was one of the first photographers to explore color as a creative language in its own right. Joining Magnum in 1949, he moved beyond reportage to craft lyrical, abstract images that blurred the boundaries between photography and painting. Using Kodachrome film with remarkable technical and artistic precision, Haas captured motion, light, and atmosphere in vibrant compositions that felt closer to music than documentation. His 1953 Life magazine essay “Images of a Magic City” was one of the first major color features and introduced audiences to a new, expressive visual vocabulary. Haas’s pioneering work helped establish color photography as an art form decades before it gained institutional recognition.
– Read our profile on Ernst here.
12. Martin Parr
Renowned for his wry social commentary and bold visual style, British photographer Martin Parr (1952–2025) has used color to expose the absurdities of modern life. Emerging in the 1980s with his seminal series The Last Resort, Parr’s garish hues and exaggerated flash transformed scenes of British leisure and consumerism into vivid social satire.
His approach challenged long-held notions of taste and beauty in photography, demonstrating that color could be ironic, critical, and complex. By blending humor with documentary insight, Parr helped redefine color’s role within contemporary reportage, influencing a generation of photographers who followed his unapologetically vivid lead.
– Read our profile on Martin here.
13. Joel Meyerowitz
A central figure in the legitimization of color photography, Joel Meyerowitz (b. 1938) began his career on the streets of New York in the early 1960s, inspired by Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson. At a time when color was dismissed as commercial, he defied convention and embraced it wholeheartedly, capturing the city’s shifting light and energy in luminous tones.Later, with projects such as Cape Light, he brought a painter’s sensibility to large-format color photography, transforming everyday scenes into meditations on atmosphere and perception. Meyerowitz’s pioneering commitment to color helped elevate the medium’s artistic status, influencing generations of photographers who followed.
14. Guy Bourdin
French photographer Guy Bourdin (1928–1991) transformed fashion photography into an avant-garde art form. Beginning in the 1950s, he used bold, saturated color and cinematic staging to create images that were as provocative as they were visually arresting.
Working primarily for Vogue Paris and brands like Charles Jourdan, Bourdin infused commercial imagery with surrealism, sensuality, and mystery. His use of color was psychologica, a tool for tension and seduction rather than mere aesthetics. By pushing the boundaries of fashion and art, Bourdin redefined the visual vocabulary of advertising and remains one of the most influential colorists in photography’s history.
– Read our profile on Guy here.
15. Stephen Shore
A leading figure of the 1970s New Color movement, Stephen Shore (b. 1947) helped redefine the visual language of photography through his precise, contemplative use of color. In landmark projects such as American Surfaces and Uncommon Places, he turned his camera toward the overlooked details of everyday American life — motel rooms, parking lots, and intersections — treating them with quiet reverence. Using large-format cameras and natural light, Shore achieved a remarkable clarity and balance, elevating the banal to the level of art. His insistence that color and the commonplace were equally worthy of attention profoundly influenced generations of photographers working at the intersection of art and documentary.
16. Luigi Ghirri
Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri(1943–1992) brought a poetic and conceptual sensibility to color photography. Emerging in the 1970s, he photographed suburban landscapes, seaside towns, and faded signs with delicate pastels and diffused light, transforming the familiar into gentle meditations on seeing. Deeply influenced by philosophy, architecture, and art history, Ghirri explored how photographs shape our perception of the world. His restrained palette and subtle compositions gave color an intellectual and emotional resonance rarely seen at the time. Through his thoughtful, lyrical approach, he became one of the most influential European photographers of the late 20th century.
17. Alex Webb
American photographer Alex Webb (b. 1952) is renowned for his complex, richly layered use of color and light. A Magnum Photos member since 1979, Webb’s work, often made in Latin America and the Caribbean, is characterized by deep saturation, intricate composition, and a remarkable sense of visual tension.
Using color not just as surface but as structure, he captures the simultaneous beauty and chaos of life in densely populated urban environments. His photographs, gathered in seminal books such as The Suffering of Light and Istanbul, stand as masterclasses in how color can be used to construct depth, rhythm, and emotion within a single frame.
18. William Albert Allard
William Albert Allard (b. 1937) is an American photographer and writer whose rich, emotive use of color helped shape National Geographic’s visual identity during its golden era. Joining the magazine in the 1960s, he was among the first to move beyond traditional reportage, using light and tone to bring depth and intimacy to his subjects.
His portraits combine documentary observation with painterly warmth, demonstrating that color could express character and atmosphere as powerfully as black and white. Across a career spanning six decades, Allard’s work stands as a testament to color’s narrative and emotional potential in documentary photography.
19. Greg Girard
A former judge of our annual Color Award, Canadian photographer Greg Girard (b. 1955) is renowned for his evocative color photographs documenting the changing face of Asia’s great cities during the late 20th century. Living for extended periods in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, he captured the transition between old and new, neon-lit streets, aging architecture, and moments of quiet humanity amid rapid modernization.
Often working at dusk and night, Girard’s rich, cinematic use of color imbues his images with a sense of mystery and nostalgia. His photographs reveal a deep sensitivity to atmosphere and light, and today stand as fascinating touchstones of a pivotal era in the urban and cultural evolution of East Asia.
Read our profile on Greg here.
20. Todd Hido
Todd Hido (b. 1968) is an American photographer whose haunting suburban scenes and atmospheric use of color have made him one of the defining visual voices of his generation. Working largely at night or in low light, he transforms ordinary houses, roads, and interiors into moody, cinematic studies of isolation and memory.
His glowing windows, fogged glass, and sodium-lit streets evoke a quiet melancholy, with color serving as both mood and metaphor. In series such as House Hunting and Excerpts from Silver Meadows, Hido shows how light itself — filtered through rain, distance, and desire — can tell a profoundly human story.
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